Chords for Elvis Costello talks about his Fender® Jazzmaster® guitar | Fender

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ [Am] _
_ [F#] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ We're here [E] right in San Francisco rehearsing for a 30th anniversary _ show playing the songs
from My Name is True with three other members from [D#] Clove with the band that played [F#] with
me on that record but never performed in public.
[F] _ And it's curious [F#] that it's brought to mind a lot of the story of how [F] I came to have this
[Em] guitar _ because _ I began the [Em] recording of the first record [B] with a _ [F#] CBS-era Telecaster.
[C] A friend of mine [D#] who was the drummer [F#] in my previous band [Em] when I was a semi [D#]-professional
actually worked for Fender [A] and he could get [C#] company discount and he bought, [Fm] he got me
[G] a Telecaster brand new [B] straight from the factory out of the box [F#] and the strings were so far
from [C#] the neck it was set up like a dobro and I knew [F#] so little about guitars I thought,
that I was just unlucky [F] and you couldn't change [C#] it.
I basically played it like that for a [F#] couple of [C] years _ [E] including when I [N] finally got a break
and started making a record.
So the first [F#] sessions for My Name is True I was [E] playing this terrible Telecaster, maple
neck long finished Telecaster, [F#] really hard to play and one day I was walking along a
road [E] in Hounslow near where I lived in West London near London Airport [G] and I saw a guitar
[Em] knot on like this one [F] hanging up [G] in a shop window [A] and I'd never seen a [E] guitar like this
I thought it looked like a strap that somebody had cut a bit off.
I didn't [D] know the guitar even existed.
You see the [E] funny cutaway shape here [F#] and I went in and tried it out [D] and it certainly
[D#] played a lot better than [C#] my guitar so I [F#] traded it in, I traded a [F] brand new guitar in for
a, I have no idea what a vintage of the one [G] I have.
_ It just seemed like an _ [A] opportunity, I'd seen one other [D] guy playing this [E] guitar _ [Dm] in [D] London,
[D#] a fella called Danny Adler, a great group called Rugalator [Em] and he played all kinds of
funky [C#] stuff on it and [D#] I could [C] never dream of playing, he [D#] could play like Clean [Am] Up Woman
and [C#] all that sort of, _
_ [Bm] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
[C] that kind of little chop stuff.
I thought well that's a [D] versatile guitar, you _ know, certainly I was a rhythm [E] player
so I didn't need any guitar that you could sustain much and I knew it did that and [E] it
had a slightly [Em] less shrill sound than the Telecaster.
But it also had this little gadget [E] on it and you know I wrote some songs on it that I use
it [B] and _ [Am] _ _
_ [E] _ I wrote like Watching the Detectives, I [F] like that kind of spy movie kind of guitar
[Gm] and you could do that pretty good [C#] on this guitar.
So I took it [F#] in and I used it on the rest of the [G] sessions and _ that is actually the [E] guitar.
_ [G] _
When I went on [E] my first, second [N] trip to America, it had this attractive [F] furniture varnish finish,
the original one that somebody had put on it.
_ [A] _ _ It may even have been a tad [C#] shinier than this [E] but it was really just home furniture varnish
like [D#] you would have on your [A] auntie's footstool.
So I had it stripped off and I had it taken to [E] Valdez in Los Angeles and he [B] put this not
entirely attractive [E] grey finish on it and my name up the neck because I was always intercountry
[D#] western style [C#] guitar, _ _ sort of gimmicks like [F] that.
And I [E] figured nobody would nick it then because it would be [C#] useless to them.
And I had a [E] spare by then which has just my _ surname on it.
_ Because it's a little [D#] confusing if you ever have to play this guitar in an emergency if
you've never played it.
[E] I remember I was in [G] an _ [Em] after [F] hours jam situation with Jerry [D#m] Garcia once and he looked at it
and [E] didn't know what the hell to do with it.
He ended up playing my [F] guitar.
And if Jerry [C#] didn't know it was a fretboard given and he played an alembic with all those
scrolls on it then you can see how [F] confusing that can be if you've never [B] held it before.
But this [E] here one is as close to feeling [Em] like mine as I can imagine.
I found a lot of [C] Jazzmasters in second hand stores [G] and they nearly always had [F] heavy flat
wire and strings on them.
And the bridges were [Em] always screwed up.
Which led me to believe [E] they'd been mainly used by [D#] rhythm guitar players [F#] and dance bands.
[E] Probably [D#] a lot of R&B groups used them.
[E] You see a lot of pictures in the 60's with R&B.
The rhythm player playing one of these.
Very chunky [C] sound.
The [C#] only other player at the [F] time that played one, [F#] well the two guys [E] from television, Tom
Bilene and [F] Richard Lloyd played [F] them.
But I [B] hadn't seen pictures of those guys.
I'd heard their [E] record and it wasn't until they came over and I [G] saw them that they were
[F] playing the same guitar as [C] me.
At least some of the time.
Because they [D#] did a lot more with it than I did.
[Em] _
_ [G] That [D#] was a record that I [C#] listened to a lot, that [D] Marquee Moon.
So I was kind of [D#] happy that [F] you could make that [Dm] kind of [E] noise with the guitar.
Although [D] I never attempted to do anything [E] like that with it.
I just played changes [D] behind my singing.
_ And then [A#m] later on it seemed to [G] come in and out of fashion.
[F] There were various different people [E] in the early 90's.
[A#] I think Kurt Cobain played one for [Em] a while.
[D#] I mean I know he played a Duosonic or something like that.
But [E] I think he played one.
[Em] So when somebody gets on the television and they're a [F#m] famous rock and [A#] roll star, then
[F] a kid who's 14 just knows that [D#m] person.
They don't know that I [F] ever played one any more than they know who Tom Bilene is or Danny
Adler or anybody [E] else in the, [A#m] you know, [E]
Garnet Mim's band that may have played one in 1965.
_ [F] _
You see pictures sometimes of people playing them.
The one thing you [D#] don't see, [E] oddly enough, for a guitar named [G] as Jay, there's many jazz
people playing them.
[Em] I don't know why they called it a jazz [A#] because, _ you know, _ I've never [G#] seen a jazz player [A] playing one. _
[A#] Although the [F] mellower cut on [E] the bass does actually sound [D] pretty.
_ If you roll off [Em] the_
It can sound pretty, you know.
There you go.
[F#] I _ [B] _ used to [F#] take this little [E] switch up [F#] because _ my one, this cut, whatever this is, it [Dm] sounded
kind of [F] dull.
And I would be halfway through [D#] something and I would suddenly lose all my volume.
So I used to take [N] that down so that I didn't accidentally go to that position. _
It [F] has, yeah, I think everybody does that.
_ It was designed [D#] obviously for the mellower sound [C#] of the [D] guitar's name [F#] that [C] nobody wants.
Well, _ I [A] think that some people did [C] actually play.
I mean, there are some pictures of some jazz [D] people playing Telecaster.
_ [D#] _
[F] But obviously, mainly because it was the first sold [D] body electric guitar.
So, of course, the [E] novelty of it alone would have [Am] encouraged people who were playing at
high volume and didn't [B] want the [F] cello body feedback.
_ _ But [C] this guitar, I don't know, [Cm] it's had a funny life.
[A#] And I've just, [E] I've always stuck with it.
I always come back to it.
I mean, I've done all sorts of different music.
But whenever it's an old [F] electric guitar, I don't think there's one [E] record I've made
that, [D#] on which the [N] Jazzmaster doesn't feature somewhere.
_ This is a brutal sort of sounding guitar.
Suits the way I play.
_ [C] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [N] _ _